State House News -- House tees up bill to allow votes for dead candidates to count

Thursday

Nov 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 7, 2013 at 7:13 AM

It speaks to a rare occurrence, but Rep. Thomas Sannicandro says it’s time to fix a state law that could allow a write-in candidate with a handful votes to win a local or statewide race if the only candidate on the ballot dies shortly before the election.

Matt Murphy, State House News Service

It speaks to a rare occurrence, but Rep. Thomas Sannicandro says it’s time to fix a state law that could allow a write-in candidate with a handful votes to win a local or statewide race if the only candidate on the ballot dies shortly before the election.

Sannicandro, an Ashland Democrat, has filed legislation (H 3422) that would allow votes for a candidate who won their party primary, but dies shortly before the general election, to count.

“The real problem is you can just get crazy results depending on how close someone dies before the election,” Sannicandro said.

The bill was added to the House calendar this week, meaning it could surface for a vote at any time.

Sannicandro said his bill would address a Supreme Judicial Court ruling from the early 20th century that found votes cast for a deceased candidate whose name remains on the ballot must be discarded.

Under the bill, if ballots have already been printed and the candidate cannot be replaced by their party on the ballot, the deceased can win the election and then normal rules for filling a vacancy with a special election would apply.

Sannicandro said the rare situation almost occurred in 2006 when state Rep. Debbie Blumer, of Framingham, was running unopposed and died of a heart attack on Oct. 13, just weeks before the election.

In that case, Sannicandro said, there was enough time for candidates to organize write-in campaigns, and former Rep. Pam Richardson prevailed.

“I see this as really just a huge issue where you can get a candidate that the district doesn’t want,” Sannicandro said. “It’s something we really should just do to clean this problem up because at some point it could create disastrous results.”

The Election Laws Committee favorably recommended the bill in October and it appeared on the House agenda this week after the House Scheduling Committee on Monday recommended that it be added to the calendar.